The Origin of Species

Share

The Origin of Species

Extraterrestrial objects plunge into the sea, releasing the seeds of life on Earth. That's the event depicted in this image, by John Brackenbury of the University of Cambridge, which recently won a Visions of Science Photographic Award in the UK. The concept isn't as outlandish as it seems. Panspermia - the notion that the basic building blocks of life float through the universe and occasionally take root in a hospitable environment - for years has been an alternative theory to how protocells formed. As beautiful as this visualization is, panspermia isn't really about eggs. Most proponents (including Nobel Prize winner Svante Arrhenius) figure that random grains of biological material from outer space set evolution into motion. But for Brackenbury, eggs embody panspermia's unconventional recipe for primordial soup.

Extraterrestrials by the Numbers• Years the US Air Force ran Project Blue Book, which tracked UFO sightings: 22• Number of UFO sightings reported to the project: 12,618• Number of those objects still unidentified: 701• Years SETI scientists have searched for extraterrestrial life: 46• Confirmed ET signals detected: 0• Years scientists have been trying to re-create the origins of life in the lab: 53• Number of protocells synthesized: 0